Popped into the Magic Kingdom for a late afternoon stroll and was surprised to see how much work has progressed in the last two weeks. Not only has the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train coaster gone vertical, but lots of little details have been added to the already detail rich Storybook Circus area. Let’s go see, shall we:

Here’s some of the vertical infrastructure going up for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Note how tall it is and there isn’t even a show building yet.

Here’s another show showing how tall the show building will be. Much of the view of New Fantasyland we’re used to will be blocked by the mine train ride.

A new poster lays out current and future attractions, stores, and dining coming to Storybook Circus. I love that Humphrey the Bear is there. I wonder if he’s replaced The Three Little Pigs who were featured on previous posters.

Took a few days of vacation last week, but returned just in time for the Magic Kingdom to do a soft opening of the first small portion of the New Fantasyland expansion on Tuesday. Storybook Circus opened half of the relocated Dumbo – The Flying Elephant. The Barnstormer returned with its new Great Goofini theme, and the Fantasyland Train Station returned with new restrooms and a tribute to Walt’s past.

This portion of Storybook Circus was not supposed to open until March 24th or so. But hotel occupancy forecasts that revised the Spring Break crowd expectations upwards forced Disney to race ahead and open the attractions 12 days early. I must say that every cast member was up to the task and very helpful. Details are obviously still being worked out in a few places, but signs of fore-thought were abundant too. All in all a great effort and result from Walt Disney World and the Magic Kingdom.

There are so many great details, I took a ton of photos and still didn’t capture but a fraction. You may have already seen a few in my post made live from the park yesterday. I’m not sure how many parts this post will have, but I know it will be more than one. So let’s get to it.

Here is a sort of overview of what I saw today, we’ll come back in and fill in the gaps in future posts.

The first sign guests got that today would be different, was a new guidemap with an old image of Dumbo on the cover.

Inside, the map reflects the soft opened area of the New Fantasyland expansion. They even show only one side of Dumbo being open. However, #35 has a caveat.

Have a long update from our visit to the Magic Kingdom this weekend. So long it’s going to take at least two posts (Update: here’s part two) to get it all in. Nearly every pic has a larger version if you click on it to help you see the detail since some of the photos are taken from a distance due to construction walls and what not.

There are still many tarps and bridges under construction around the park. I didn’t take new photos of Main Street or Adventureland, but there is still work under way in both locations.

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom was option for play testing again today. They continue to refine the check-in process. Remember to bring your Sorcerer’s Key along with your deck. You an ask for five cards for every member with a valid admission, but they default to just give you five cards per party. While it’s still only on the ‘easy’ level, if you have a 4-10 year old this is a lot of fun. For older kids (adults too) it’s a great collectible. Addicting, really.

The good news is that the Firefighter patches have been returned to the FireHouse.

Continuing our stroll through Walt Disney World… Part one had a bunch of Fantasyland Expansion photos, let’s start with a few more:

A lot of rock work is still underway, but those trees you see in the foreground are newly planted. They’ve also been doing some other landscaping, which is behind the wall, so you can’t see it. On the left you can see that more progress has been made on Belle’s cottage.

Here’s a shot showing how close the rock work and castle wall from Beast’s castle comes to the back of Gaston’s Tavern. Note the saddle roof design. Should be really beautiful when finished.

Click image for Larger. Here’s another view where the saddle roofs are more obvious.

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A web log for all fans of Walt Disney, The Disney Company, and its many products. Using the theories behind Walt Disney's family oriented entertainment and education, this blog is intended to be a safe read for the whole family. Proud to be a part of Quality Will Out Omnimedia.
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